1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance device for an inkjet cartridge, and more specifically, to a maintenance device with one end of a wiper holder capable of moving up and down.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Copy machines, fax machines, and printers are commonly used for processing documents at work places. To meet the requirement of high printing quality, most inkjet printers have maintenance devices for print head cleaning and maintenance to avoid ink problems and ensure future printing precision. A wiper is installed on the maintenance device for scrubbing residual ink on the print head using relative movement between the wiper and the print head.
FIG. 1 illustrates different states of a wiper of a prior art maintenance device 1 for an inkjet cartridge. The maintenance device 1 comprises a wiper sliding platform 10 and a wiper base 12. The wiper sliding platform 10 has a wiper 6A and a wiper 6B for scrubbing ink from the print heads. The wiper sliding platform 10 moves right with its sliding pins 8A and 8B sliding along the slits 14A and 14B inside the wiper base 12.
In state Sa of FIG. 1 a carrier 2 drives the cartridges 4A and 4B to the maintenance device 1. As the carrier 2 moves right, it contacts and pushes the wiper sliding platform 10 to move right, too. As state Sb of FIG. 1 shows, the carrier 2 pushes the wiper sliding platform 10 right, along with the sliding pins 8A and 8B installed on the wiper sliding platform 10. The sliding pins 8A and 8B slide in the slits 14A and 14B respectively of the wiper base 12. As the sliding pins 8A and 8B slide right a distance S, the upward slopes of the slits 14A and 14B lift the slits 8A and 8B and the wiper sliding platform 10 a fixed height. The wipers 6A and 6B installed on the wiper sliding platform 10 will then rise to a predetermined position so that the wipers 6A and 6B can contact the surfaces F of the cartridges 4A and 4B. The maintenance device 1 will keep the wipers 6A and 6B at the predetermined position while the carrier 2 drives the cartridges 4A and 4B backward, causing a moving contact between the wipers 6A, 6B and the surfaces F of the cartridges 4A, 4B to scrub ink from the print heads, thus cleaning the print heads.
The slopes of the slits 14A and 14B of the prior art maintenance device 1 make the wiper sliding platform 10 lift from a height in state Sa to a height in state Sb. Such slopes in the maintenance device 1 require an extra width for sliding to drive the wiper sliding platform 10 to a predetermined height. Therefore, an extra cost for an enlarged size of the maintenance device 1 exists, and possibilities for further miniaturization are reduced.